The Bombadils release New Shoes and make a visit home to the prairies

Sarah Frank’s current musical endeavors sounds like something out of a Stompin’ Tom Connors tribute.

First of all, Frank is from Edmonton, but her bandmate (Luke Fraser) is from the Maritimes. Also, The Bombadils latest album, New Shoes, was recorded in British Columbia. On top of all that, the two currently live in Montreal and they both have a deep seeded love for traditional Canadian music. All you need is a piece of plywood with boot marks on it, a flat of beer, and The Bombadils are basically a Connors tune.

The two are currently on the road in support of the new album with the most recent leg taking them around the eastern provinces, and down into the US. While in Washington, DC they even learned, in true Connors form, they could play anywhere.

“We peeked at the White House, we visited the Smithsonian Museum,” says Frank. “Then we played a hair salon.

“We do house concerts sometimes and the owner of the hair salon figured that they should just use the salon because there was more room there. They gave us some free product samples too.”

With Frank on the fiddle/banjo, Fraser on the guitar and mandolin, the duo’s sound is strongly entrenched in a Canadian style. New Shoes is their third album and embraces their trademark Celtic sound while, as introduced in previous records, being complimented by thoughtful, poetic compositions (the track “Squirrels Rule The Day, Raccoons Rule The Night” is a perfect example of this).

The album covers themes of travel, home and of course, travelling home.

“I love coming back to the prairies,” says Frank. “We’ve only played a couple times since moving away, but it’s always special to come home to play. My family is super supportive. My dad is the biggest fan ever. He’s always making sure that radio stations are playing our music.”

When their label Borealis Records put an ad on the back of Penguin Eggs recently, her dad went to Chapters and purposefully flipped every single magazine around so that the ad featuring The Bombadils was visible.